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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23914528">A Dark Corner Amonst the Color</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibliophile_masida/pseuds/bibliophile_masida'>bibliophile_masida</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Brother-Sister Relationships, Child Abandonment, Difficult Childhoods, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fantasy, Found Family, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Mind Reading, Original Character(s), Orphans, Supernatural - Freeform, Superpowers, mute character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:02:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,502</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23914528</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibliophile_masida/pseuds/bibliophile_masida</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Two children with powers end up in the same abandoned place, and quickly find that they are the best family for each other. When new abilities develop, however, they find their relationship may not be perfect after all.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>----<br/>This was written for a short story contest and it is my first time publishing any writing. Please let me know your thoughts, thanks so much for reading!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Dark Corner Amonst the Color</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Her cheeks were rosy pink, ready to unleash the first cry of life, but no noise came out. And none ever did. Instead, her scream was thrown into the minds of everyone around like an angry conscience. Beyond that, the baby girl disappeared, and all present wished to forget she ever existed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A boy wandered the marketplace, looking at all the food with a pitying face, a skill perfected by his mother. The task of gaining the sympathy of strangers became more difficult with her passing; there was no longer a shield for half of his face. His right eye, a piercing gray, was granted stares of disgust and horror after seeing his other dark brown eye. Food didn't come as easily nowadays. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In that same marketplace, a young child got pushed into a pile of boxes, arms scraped up from the splintering wood, the boy rushed over and did the one thing his mother told him to never do in front of others. The boy’s comforting brown eye clouded as the color became the same gray as his other one. The child’s scrapes knitted themselves back together, a warm glow indicating the space where the cuts disappeared altogether. While the boy smiled at his accomplishment, all of the ruckus nearby stopped as eyes began to pierce into him from all directions. It was with the first scream that the boy shook himself from his frozen state and his feet pounded the ground to get away from the fear. He, too, disappeared into a vague memory.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a small temple deep in the woods. The temple opened into an area full of fruit trees and a river with fish flowing through it. Cold stone was brought to life with shelves upon shelves of books on bits of knowledge from various subjects. It was here that the two children, still a baby and a boy, reached safety. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When the boy got there after a several hour’s journey, he could hear a baby’s cry, but within his thoughts, not with his ears. And for the first time in the baby’s short few months before being left where she was, that cry was met with excitement. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The boy rushed around a corner, unable to trace by sound but felt in his gut where she would be: under an amber tree.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He called out to her, “baby amber tree.” He cooed at her, gently touching her face like he had seen his mother do. For the first time in months, she was actually comforted by another’s touch.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My name’s Zheng,” he said softly, “are you alone too?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Baby amber tree, as he called her, turned her eyes on him with full attention, and in that moment Zheng, still young himself, knew that they would be together forever.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wooden swords clash against each other harshly, making a sound that reverberated through the air. Heavy pants filled the space after the initial sound dissipated, and the rapid movement between the two stopped for the first time in an hour.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You should get some water, Amber,” Zheng said with a wide smile between heavy breaths, “looks like you almost went down for a second there.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Shut up, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Amber replied, a slight grin on her face as she let her thoughts seep in, </span>
  <em>
    <span>you know I would have had you if I matched your size.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So you always say. Come sit down so I can get your bruises.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the fifteen years since they had found themselves in this new home of theirs, sparring became a daily routine. Ever since Amber could hold one of the wooden swords left behind by the previous inhabitants, now no longer baby amber tree, they honed their skills in close combat. If you asked Amber why, she’d say that Zheng, as a growing boy, needed an outlet for the endless energy he seemed to have in their seclusion. Not that she minded, she too became addicted to the exhilaration of it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If you asked Zheng, his answer would be clear: the sparring was a testament to their survival. It was proof to him that they were able to survive their first winter on their own, survive the trips into town to get what they couldn’t produce themselves and to peak through the windows of classrooms to learn how to read the numerous books in the temple. It showed they were strong enough to survive the illness they each contracted in their time together. And Zheng was proud of the fact that they were still standing, together. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A soothing feeling washed over Amber as Zheng’s brown eye twisted to gray. The harder she peered into his eyes, the further beyond them she felt she could go. It was a wall between conscious and unconscious, a wall that she felt closer and closer to squeezing past in those first weeks of spring. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Hey Zheng,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she asked forwardly, </span>
  <em>
    <span>can I try something? I feel like I can do more than just put my voice in your head. I think I might be able to put myself there too.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zheng winced slightly as he shifted in his position on the floor. “Sure, so long as you don’t peer into my darkest secrets” he said mock-scarily, to which Amber just rolled her eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>As if you had any of those. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She sharpened her focus on his eyes, her own green ones intensifying in color. Her long hair began to blow behind her, and, suddenly, Amber felt like she was floating in his mind space.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zheng’s mind was breathtakingly beautiful. Warm and bright colors reached out in all directions, glimpses of memories gently floating by her. She could see the sharp scarlets of their fights, the deep indigos of the time she was sick, the sunshine gold of him just smiling and appreciating the moment, and all the colors in between encompassing all of his essence, all of who he was. Amber felt overwhelmingly safe there, wrapped in the love he had for her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As she got farther back, there was a dark spot amongst the vivid hues. It grew and grew as she got closer, and a heavy feeling overtook her. As she tried to reach out to it, she was thrown back out into herself, leaving her breathless.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zheng, too, had paled so quickly as if he became a corpse in that moment. His eyes were wide with shock and fear, fear that his darkness faced a light for the first time since it was developed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The only thing Amber knew in that moment was hot anger, an anger that went unfiltered in her loose attempt to keep the thoughts going out of her mind coherent. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I thought you were joking, you are hiding something! </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her eyebrows furrowed as she gritted her teeth. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What don’t you want me to see? I thought we could trust each other. I thought that because you could hear all of my thoughts you would at least be open with me! Does it have to do with how you wince even after you heal us from sparring? With how tired you’ve been, even though you have been playing it off as nothing? I’m not oblivious, Zheng, but I thought you would come to me.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zheng, regaining his color, became rigid, a remnant of a tear pinching the corner of his eye. “All I have ever wanted to do was protected you,” he said shakily, “and that requires being strong for you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he stood to leave, his face twisted in pain, forcing him back on the ground. Amber, anger dissipated into worry, lowered him down. She lifted his shirt to find bruises as dark as the night sky covering his torso from brawls of theirs, all that were never healed by him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As she looked in horror, he solemnly whispered, “I’m supposed to keep you safe, to keep you happy, how am I supposed to do that like this? I’ve failed as an older brother.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he looked at her with tears in his eyes, she pierced her own into his. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll fix this, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she said with determination, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll make you better. </span>
  </em>
  <span>With that battle cry, she went back into his mind, past all the beautiful color and to the center of the darkness. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At the epicenter was an old lantern with nothing left inside to keep it going. Amber got an image of Zheng as a child, being chased into the mountains for the way he was. She hugged the lantern, putting all of her warm thoughts and love for Zheng into it, wanting nothing more than for him to be okay again. The lantern ignited with her energy, lighting up the dark corner amongst the color. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She left his mind on her own, and opened her eyes to the warm glow of Zheng healing his own wounds, enough for him to take her in his arms and held onto her so tightly that she almost lost her breath.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you,” he said softly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Sometimes I’m supposed to protect you too.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so so much for reading this story! Like I said, this was for a short story contest so my word count was limited, but if anyone is interested in a continuation or an expansion of this story please let me know! All feedback is welcome and appreciated.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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